Bottles, particularly those for soft drinks and other beverages, are often stored and transported during the distribution stages in crates or trays. The term “crate” or “tray” as used herein includes crates, trays and similar containers having a bottom and peripheral side wall structure. These crates are generally configured to be stacked on top of each other loaded with bottles, and nested together when empty.
In order to minimize the storage space of the crates while nested and to reduce cost and waste, many crates today are made with a shallow peripheral side wall structure. These generally are referred to as “low depth” crates in which the bottles bear most of the load of above-stacked crates. Crates having a higher peripheral side wall, approximately the same height as the bottles, generally are referred to as “full depth” crates in which the crates themselves bear most of the load of above-stacked crates.
The assignee of the present invention has previously provided the low depth, nestable display crate 100 shown in FIG. 10 herein. The nestable display crate 100 has a floor 102 and a wall structure 104. The wall structure 104 comprises a lower wall portion 106 and a plurality of integrally formed pylons 108 arranged around the periphery of the crate 100. The pylons 108 are hollow and tapered so that pylons 108 of empty crates 100 can nest within one another. Handles 110 are integrally formed to extend between some of the pylons 108. Inside each hollow pylon 108 a rib 112 extends downwardly. When nested, each rib 112 will rest upon an upper surface of a corresponding pylon 108 of the below nested crate 100. The rib 112 prevents the pylons 108 from being wedged too tightly within one another. This crate 100 is described and claimed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,855,277 that is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,843 is also incorporated by reference in its entirety.